And today for lunch we will be having cozy sweat shirts, fuzzy blankets and chilled classrooms.
Students and faculty at Penn Manor High School have been complaining about the chilly and uncomfortable conditions in the halls and classrooms. These rooms include the library, auditorium and cafeteria.
Justice Hower, a senior at Penn Manor, decided to eat his lunch outside today. Why eat outside on the first day of November?
“It’s warmer outside than it is in the school,” Hower said.
Many other students and teachers did not know why the school was so cold, but they had their views.
“I think it’s cold because of the doors at central complex were left open to set up for the colleges,” senior Nick Hartley said.
Librarian Sue Hostetter had a more academic response.
“I think the school is doing a research project to see how cooler temperatures affect test results,” she said. “At this point, the temperature is distracting students.”
“Feel my hands, ice!” added Hostetter. “Give us ten degrees more heat, that would be lovely.”
During third block, the library staff was making hot chocolate as the cure for the chilly day.
But the explanation for arctic temperatures inside the building
wasn’t all that interesting.
“I can’t tell a difference in the temperature,” said custodian Leighton Dickenson, as he smirked, clearly joking.
The school is either on the “chiller” or the “boiler,” and last week, due to the warmer temperatures, Dickenson explained he had the chiller running.
Over the weekend, Dickenson switched over the chiller to the boiler to make heat but, unfortunately he said, the boilers take a couple of days to heat up.
Dickenson said that “people tend to cope better in cooler temperatures opposed to warmer temperatures.”
With the really cold temperatures over the weekend and the chiller on last week, the school was not able to warm quickly.
“The school should gradually warm up over the next couple days until it gets back to normal,” said Dickenson.
The administration office was suspiciously warm but Dickenson explained that space tends to warm up quite fast compared to the rest of the school because the office has its own heating and cooling system.
The system used in the office has to cover a much smaller volume, so it can heat and cool the area at a much faster speed, he said.
If only the students had access to this luxury on this ever so chilly day. They might just have to get in trouble to have the opportunity to warm up.
By Cree Bleacher and Kyle Hallett